Moon of Ice

Hitler did not lose World War II in Linaweaver's alternate history. After developing his own atom bomb, he conquered most of Europe and Russia but reached a stalemate with America. In the ensuing cold war, Germany suffers renewed inflation and is stifled by an overstratified bureaucracy while America prospers but becomes Balkanized with an ever-weaker Federal government. This warped mirror image of our world is seen through the eyes of New York editor Alan Whittmore and through two of his publications: the diaries of aging Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his rebellious, anarchist daughter Hilda. Linaweaver's relegating the Holocaust to a small corner of his sometimes comic opera plot is sure to offend some, but he also offers a provocative rereading of the last half century, comparing FDR's powers to Hitler's, considering the war crimes trial of Winston Churchill and, in the book's grabber, describing a hugely popular Nazi propaganda film that turns out to be Raiders of the Lost Ark with every ethnic stereotype intact. (February 15)